CHAPTER V.

WHEN THE FIRST WORLD-MONARCHY BEGAN

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Genesis 10 and 11.

THEN we reach the ninth chapter of Genesis the flood is past and the deluge over. The first climax of sin has met its fate, and the human race, originally created holy, innocent, and in God's image, has been swept away, with the exception of eight souls.

Noah and his family have come forth from the ark, and God has in them given man another chance. We shall see, before we conclude, what man did with that chance.

GOD BLESSING NOAH.

God is now blessing Noah, and entering into a new covenant with him.

In the blessing man is once more commanded to "be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth ❞—an obligation as binding today as then, the doctrinaires. of the new social order to the contrary notwithstanding. Ex-president Roosevelt's fulminations against race suicide are quite in harmony with the blessing pronounced on Noah.

Man is again given dominion over the beasts of the earth, only now the "fear" of him and the "dread"

of him are the weapons of his power, suggesting that previously he may have ruled by fondness and affection.

A change in man's diet is noted. Whereas previously he was limited to the herb, now he is at liberty to eat flesh. Some regard this as a lightening of the curse since flesh is easier to obtain than the products of the soil, but there is another view to be taken of it. We observe, for example, that in our day spiritists, theosophists and others who claim affinity with evil spirits are prohibited the use of meat on the ground that it hinders such affinity; and may it be that God now commanded it, in order to forestall such affinity on the part of the postdiluvians lest they should fall into the sin of their progenitors?

Finally, certain magisterial functions are now conferred upon man. Whereas the previous dispensation had been one of freedom even unto license, so that men took matters of law into their own hands and slew for revenge as they chose, now God will hold them accountable for human blood, 66 and I whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

All these things are mentioned in the first six verses of the ninth chapter.

THE TOKEN OF THE RAINBOW.

The covenant that God enters into with Noah includes as well every living creature; and the terms of it are that flesh shall not again be cut off by the waters of a flood.

God goes even further in grace, giving a token or a sign of His promise for perpetual generations, saying: "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. * *

* And I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

You will recall that at the creation of man, it was stated that "the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth," ," "but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." As Dr. Pember suggests, probably this state of things continued until the flood, when the windows of heaven were for the first time opened. The rainbow he regards as a new phenomenon when it was given as a token to Noah, believing that the words of God imply as much. Had the bow been seen before the flood, its subsequent reappearance could never have suggested security, in his judgment. But if there had been no rainbow, there could scarcely have been rain.

On this supposition, the falling drops, and then the pouring torrents, must have greatly added to the terror of that day. "What scenes of horror must have been presented beneath the ominous rainfall! What affrighted groups! What countenances of dismay! What shrieks of terror! What faintings for fear! What headlong flights to any place which appeared to offer safety for the moment!"

I am inclined to agree with Pember about this matter, and think his idea is strengthened by the declara

tion that God now sets a bow in the cloud to show that never again will He punish sin in this way.

But how affecting to hear God say, "I will look upon the bow." In other words, the rainbow, in its beauty and glory, is not man's token, but God's token; and man's security does not rest upon his seeing it, but upon God's seeing it.

THE RAINBOW AND THE SPRINKLED BLOOD.

The circumstance recalls that equally touching utterance of Jehovah in the twelfth of Exodus, where in directing the Hebrews as to their deliverance from the death of the first-born, He tells them to slay a lamb and sprinkle its blood upon the door-posts of their houses, adding, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you." Not when they should see the blood, for they were on the inside of the house, but when God Himself saw it He would pass over them.

Think of what this means for those who are in Christ Jesus! He is God's token rather than man's, God looks upon His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, and is satisfied with His finished work, and passes over you and me in all our guilt because of it. How kind God is!

Let us then remember every time we look at the rainbow in the sky, that there is Some One else looking at it, and that it is bringing to His remembrance the promise that means so much to us, and which is as sure as His own throne.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS.

We pass over hundreds of years now, and come to the tenth chapter, where is an account of the dispersion of the nations throughout the earth, beginning with the words:

"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood."

In the following verses are given the names of these sons and grandsons, and first, those of Japheth. We are told that "By these "—the descendants of Japheth -"were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." The phrase "the isles of the Gentiles" may be rendered "the coastlands of the nations," and we learn from other scriptures and secular research that "the coastlands of the nations" means the proximity of the Persian Gulf on the south, the Caspian and Black Seas on the north, and the Mediterranean and Egean on the west. These localities, settled by the descendants of Japheth, were chiefly in the north and northwest, and for the most part what we know as the continent of Europe. Most of us in this audience belong to the line of Japheth, which in later days has been called the Aryan race, including the Hindus, the Celts, the Greeks, the Italians, the Germans, and the Slavs.

Next follows the line of Ham, and without reading the verses, let me say that they went in a south and